Japan to impose additional sanctions on North Korea

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga attends a news conference after the launch of a North Korean missile at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official residence in Tokyo, Japan May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai.

Reuters

TOKYO: Japan will impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to the continuing threat posed by its missile and nuclear programmes, Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The sanctions, mentioned by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, will freeze the assets of nine organizations and 26 individuals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

"The North Korean missile and nuclear issue is a pressing threat unseen before. Its provocative actions, in which it has ignored the severe warnings of international society, are totally unacceptable," he said.

The organisations are North Korean banks, several of them based in China, while the individuals are based in a number of nations, including China, Russia and Libya.

Suga said the move was taken in the wake of Trump's visit as a way of demonstrating the determination of the two nations to stand together and increase pressure on Pyongyang.

Trump said on Monday that the United States stood in solidarity with Japan on North Korea and called North Korea's ballistic missile launches over Japan "a threat to the civilized world and to international peace and stability."